Hands-on with smartphones from Sony, ZTE and Huawei at CES 2013

CES provided a chance for us to get our hands on two of the latest smartphones. Interestingly, Sony's Xperia Z, ZTE's Grand S and the Huawei Ascend D2 are all built around 5", 1920 x 1080 pixel screens and feature 13MP cameras. All run Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and yet, despite the spec similarities, there are still differences - in the user experience as well as the processors used. We had the opportunity to use all these phones, to see how they behave - find out what we thought.

Sony identifies its camera sensor as one of its own Exmor RS chips - one of the 'Stacked CMOS' designs that it announced in January 2012 (between then and now Sony announced it was dropping the RGBW design).

So what is the big deal that everybody is complaining about seeing mobiles on dpreview? All modern phones have build in cameras. BTW those cameras are killers of compact cameras and who knows, maybe in the future they will kill dslr as well... Just dont read article if yu are not interested in phones. Is that so hard?

Or better yet, RButler, how about, instead of making us learn a bunch of bells and whistles about how to get rid of non pertinent noise, you just put in a little more efforts on improving the site. I can think of a few things where you can better put some efforts other than dumb phones... like better coverage on the brands that you don't like personally or who din't buy you off, knowing when to shut off OIS in a Samsung on a tripod so you don't get blurred images that you will NEVER redo, giving the manufacturer a bad reputation (heck, I'm surprised they haven't caught on and sued you yet), and keep expanding on the things you do best: the PHOTOGRAPHY-related content!!! And btw, I just took a look at those filters... nowhere does it give the option of turning off news on dumb phones.

Wait for the Samsung Galaxy SIV or others. I prefer a dust and water proof mobile with a GOOD low light camera recording 60fps. Meanwhile I use my Sony-TX66 in the pocket. Save my money ! PS.: I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 and I´m VERY happy with this one.

So still no love for the best cameraphone in the World... Nokia Lumia 920.Some time ago DPR gave me the impression you werer working on it, but apparently reviewing the best cameraphone is not in your interest?

I have the Samsung Galaxy Note II with a 5.5" screen and I love this phone. No problem with the phone fitting in either pants or jacket pockets. My previous phone was a 4.7" which now looks diminutive in comparison.

The 5.5" is a perfect size and with quad-core and super amoled screen running on 4G-LTE it's insanely fast and responsive. Also the battery capacity is simply amazing. iPhone users lower their heads in shame when they see my phone and promise to repent from their blind obedience to Apple's marketing sham and dated 6-year old iOS.

Don't knock these phones until you have lived with them. Word's can't do justice to their awesomeness.

It's all good and great, but 5 inch screens are rather to be counted as small tablets than mobile phones - one hand operation is close to impossible (at least I know it is not on 6 in tablet and on 4 in Xperia Arc feels just about right for my not so small hands). "Pocketability" is as well out of window and the jacket pockets will have to grow in size (attention, fashion people). Lastly, 13MP for a camera phone is stupid overkill.

Richard, the stacked CMOS and its performance is yet to be seen (in some review here, I guess). My comment about pixel count is purely related what majority of mobile phone photography today is for, which is social media utilising very low MP count to start with. So "more is better" (even if it is in this case) is pushing consumers around with numbers, even if they need just those 2MP. I have not noticed significant increase in data allowance (at least where I am) even on premium plans, so majority of phone camera users are still pretty sparse when selecting what image size (and quality) are the photos they upload via G3/G4 connection. Until that changes significantly, the sheer MP count still matters. So let's wait for the reviews and leave reading sales brochures aside. cheers